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RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS

Reluctant Sheep
Sheep get an awfully bad rap, linguistically. Some are quick to label people as “sheep” if we think they haven’t sufficiently questioned authority or if they’re too willing to go along with someone else’s plan. We say someone has “the wool over their eyes” if they aren’t willing to see what we think is very obvious. “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” is what we call someone looking to take advantage of those too gullible to identify a real threat.

Taking all this into account and considering how often we are referred to as sheep in Scripture, you’ve really got to wonder if God trying to tell us something about ourselves.

If you look at the phraseology associated with sheep, it’s no wonder that nobody wants to be one. Sheep are innocent. Sheep can’t protect themselves. They’re vulnerable and easily misled.

We want to see ourselves as the opposite of all that. We like to think we’re shrewd, with plenty of common sense. We want to believe that we don’t have to rely on anybody for anything. We would sooner identify with the wolf than with the sheep — at least the wolf can take care of himself.

We do this because we often resist the need to rest in the greatness of God. Like a child walking to school alone for the first time (forgetting his mom is following watchfully in the car), we want to think we can handle it all by ourselves.

The truth is that God is trying to tell us something by comparing us to sheep: You don’t have to do this on your own.

Every time I look at an obstacle and think that there is no way around it, I am forgetting that I have a shepherd who knows the location of the gate.
— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS


The World Is Watching
If you’re a parent, you know this to be true: the world is watching. All it takes is one slip-up — one bad word, one selfish action, one uncharitable commentary, and that’s the thing your child seems to notice.

When he or she calls you on it, the only thing you can do is come clean. “Yep, I did that,” you have to say. “I’m a work in progress, but luckily, God never stops working.”

I think it’s fair to say that we don’t think enough about the wounds of Christ. It’s a little understandable, of course. Our human bodies flinch at the sight of such pain and mortification. It’s a lot to handle, the physical trauma of a crucifixion. It carries an R rating in a PG world.

But the wounds of Christ are the only thing that could make Thomas believe. Literally nothing else was so powerful, not even the testimony of his most trusted friends. Only by looking at and feeling the torn flesh — by beholding that messy reality — did this Apostle, this actual companion of Christ, come to believe in the Resurrection.

“Christ has no body now but yours,” goes the famous quote attributed to St. Teresa of Avila. What she’s saying is that we have become the means through which God chooses to accomplish His will in the world. Us, the broken. Us, the weary. Us, the imperfect. Yes, miraculous events and apparitions still occur from time to time, but by and large, if a person is going to come to believe in Jesus Christ in this day and age, it will be because of something we Christians do or say.

Christ has no wounds now but ours. Our brokenness, our weariness, our imperfection — our reality. It all belongs to him, and the world is watching.
— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS


A God Who Knows How It Feels
Christ could have spoken anything from the cross, so why did he choose to recite Psalm 22? And why is it so important that we recite that same Psalm at today’s Mass?

“My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?”

We’ve never known the Jesus of the Gospels to doubt the will of God. We’ve never known him to be a defeatist or to give into feelings of despair. He’s the hero who walks on water, the Savior who is welcomed to Jerusalem with a pathway of palms. And he knows how this story ends; he knows full well that his Father has absolutely not abandoned him.

So why does he say this? Jesus doesn’t make offhanded comments, especially in his last hour. Today, when we repeat the words that he calls out in his darkest moment, we must remember that he wants us, very particularly, to consider them.

With his crucifixion, Jesus reminds us of his humanity. He is a man of flesh that can be torn and blood that can be shed. Somehow, in tandem with his divinity, he still possesses a heart that knows fear and pain and longing. And with this seemingly hopeless cry, he reminds us of that.

Let us never doubt that Jesus can relate to us in our brokenness. This is the week, friends. This is the week that reminds us that our God is a God who knows every pang, every trembling, and every uncertainty of human life. Our God knows what abandonment feels like. He knows what rejection feels like. He knows what it is to keep going when the strength and the will has disappeared.
— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS


Make a Way
What’s your comfort zone: emotionally, professionally, personally? We all have one. But did you realize that you can have one spiritually? Think about what you like and what you don’t particularly enjoy when it comes to church, prayer, and liturgy. We all have “those songs” we crinkle our noses at, either because they’re too modern or too old-fashioned. We all have “those people” in our parish whose ideas we aren’t so sure about, whether that’s because they’re trying to change too much or because they seem always to be looking toward the past. Also, when was the last time you sat on the OTHER side of the church during Mass?
As much as we may not want to admit it, even (and especially) as people of God, we get deeply attached to our own personal comfort zones — and we tend to view those outside with distrust.
But what if God had a comfort zone? What if He viewed us, in our sin and our misery, as too “far away” from Himself to reach? Thankfully, our God is a God who “opens a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters.” Our God is a God who does “something new.”
The call to stewardship demands that we look outside of ourselves. Our thoughts, our opinions, our preferences — these things are not important to the steward. Even if there is a vast, dry desert of discord, or a seemingly endless wasteland of opposing views between us and our neighbor, God challenges us to “make a way” out of our comfort zone, that together we may announce His praise.
— Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS
 

Marriage and Family Enrichment from the Diocese of Owensboro - Here you will find Marriage Enrichment Programs such as Grace Marriage, Be Light and other resources for your marriage along with parenting resources.

Focus - Fellowship of Catholic University Students Blog

Diocese of Owensboro Young Adult Facebook Page

Diocese of Owensboro Marriage and Family Life Office  

Busted Halo - Busted Halo is a unique media resource that utilizes a relevant and accessible voice to help young adults understand the Catholic faith, put it into practice in their everyday lives, and share it with others

Chasitity Project Blog

Ascension Presents - Fr. Mike Schmitz videos

Newman Center - Find a Newman Center near you.  Newman Centers are residence and Catholic ministry centers at non-Catholic universities throughout the world. These centers provide pastoral services and ministries to their Catholic communities, in particular to the Roman Catholic student population within universities throughout the world.

National Young Adult Conferences in Steubenville

Murray State University Newman Center

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SEEK a conference by FOCUS -  is an invitation to college students everywhere to explore life’s bigger questions: who we are, where we’re going and what we seek along the journey. As FOCUS’ national conference, SEEK encourages all students to come explore what they truly seek: to learn about the faith, to share in friendship, to be encouraged in their unique vocation — and to experience the love, hope and very real presence of Jesus Christ through His Church.

Hosted for five days every other year, SEEK gathers thousands of college students together from all across the country for a time of prayer, fellowship, engaging talks, inspiring entertainment — and, most importantly, a chance to encounter Christ in a life-changing way.